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FIRST OVERLAND NEWSLETTER 15The latest news of the 'First Overland' DVD, based on Antony Barrington-Brown's original film footage of the 1955 Oxford & Cambridge Far Eastern Expedition from London to Singapore. |
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The 'First Overland Roadshow' spent the weekend of July 7th/8th at the 'Leafers at T'Pit' Rally at the National Coalmining Museum near Wakefield in Yorkshire. The Museum is a marvellous place, with many excellent displays and (most popular of all) the chance to go down a real once-working coal mine. I'm afraid that I didn't manage to try that because I was doing the presentation every-hour-on-the-hour, and (never being known for being taciturn!) was taking nearly 40 minutes to do it. By the time I'd finished, chatted to those of the audience who wanted to take home their own copy of 'First Overland', and generally got my breath back, it was time to start again! I had the use of part of the Museum's Conference Centre, which meant that it was very comfy, warm and dry — a great blessing in view of the weather outside. Sunny one minute, wet the next, there was at least one occasion when I had to turn up the speakers because of the horrendous noise of storm rain on the roof. But you know what Land-Rover people are — the rally continued regardless at the other end of the site, and there were some excellent early vehicles on display. |
There was also a lot of good-natured banter about vehicles with coil springs not being entirely welcome on site, and I had to hide my Freelander behind the Series 2 Club tent so no-one would see it. Much mirth at the end of each day because the inverter running a promotional DVD loop at the rally to point people towards the Conference Centre took my battery down too low to start the TD4, and I had to run my jumper cables off a leaf-sprung LR to get started. But I did have a notice in my window saying "My other Land-Rover is a Leafer", with a photo taken the day before of the new galvanised rolling chassis round which SXF870 (the white Series 1 in the DVD extra) is being rebuilt.
This event began as a major show for Steam Traction and Showman's Engines, but has grown to become one of the biggest events in the Yorkshire Dales. 12 years ago they celebrated their 30th Anniversary, and (as this was also the year that BMW bought Land Rover) a group of LR enthusiasts on the committee decided to mark the occasion by starting a Land Rover Section to go alongside the vintage cars and motorbikes. Now there are always more vehicles than there is space for them, and from the second year onwards I've been privileged to do the commentary for the ring parade, introducing the story behind Land Rover, and tracing its history through the vehicles on show. But not this year! To keep the story short, we did 456 miles on Friday 20th in storm rain that later led to considerable flooding in southern England. The M1 motorway was stop-start for most of the way, and the clutch master cylinder was playing up on the Freelander. Mercifully it didn't let us down in heavy traffic, but we arrived home at 10 at night absolutely exhausted. I was not in a mood for an early start for Masham, even assuming I could get all the kit into my wife's little Citroën C1, so with regret I bottled out. |
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By all accounts Saturday was a pretty miserable day at the Rally, with a lot of deep mud to contend with. The Land Rovers were the only class that attempted a ring parade. But Sunday started much better, and so I made the journey, parking the Citroën in the market place and getting a lift onto the field with my kit from Roy Preston of the Discovery Owners Club, who also let me take over the Club's gazebo — thanks, guys!
I can't say that there were thousands gathered to watch the 'Forgotten Film of Forgotten Roads' presentation, but it was good to go and meet people again, and to introduce them once more to BB's wonderful footage. Don't forget that if you have a Land Rover rally coming up, or a club meet, and it's within range of the North Yorkshire coast, I'd be happy to come along and give you the full one-hour presentation.
(For the benefit of those not fortunate enough to live in Yorkshire, sorry if this all seems a bit remote. Your fault for living in Cornwall, Canada, California, Cape Town and Canberra!)
I had a lovely letter passed on to me by the editor of 'Prospero' — the BBC's newspaper for retired staff, which mentioned the 'First Overland' DVD a couple of issues ago. It came from Miss Raquel Ebbutt, who wrote:
The article 'London to Singapore by road' brought back many memories as I took a sabbatical from the BBC from 1958-61. With four friends I travelled in a short wheelbase Land-Rover from London to what was then Ceylon. After crossing the Indian Ocean we drove from Perth to Sydney.
'First Overland' by Tim Slessor was our 'bible'. We always said we were 'Second Overland'. We each contributed £200 to the kitty to obtain medical supplies, spare parts for the Land-Rover etc before we started, and this kitty lasted us the four months until we reached Sydney, including the boat fare.
I sent a copy of the article to two of my fellow travellers — one remarried in Sydney, the other in the Dordogne
Miss Ebbutt has ordered a copy of the DVD, and sent a charming little note saying "I did meet Tim Slessor once (briefly) at the Ealing Film Studios, but he wouldn't remember". I've sent Tim the challenge, and he's promised to write to her.
It really is surprising just how many people his book has touched over the past 50 years. I'm intrigued at how 5 people (were they all women?) managed to go all that way in a single 86/88" (or was it just one of a convoy?), and do it for only £800. Marvellous stuff!
GRAEME ALDOUS
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